All These Years (a UsUk fanfic)
by LegendOfGalaga
Summary: Arthur is still having trouble letting go of the past. This is revealed when Alfred overhears him talking to the bartender about how ungrateful a certain American is. Alfred takes Arthur to his house rather than his own. Will Alfred be able to bring him back into reality? THE WORLD MAY NEVER KNOW (just kidding)


The time was after another yet another World Meeting. Arthur Kirkland was exhausted due to staying up all night filling out paperwork for the meeting that, as it always happens to go, nobody accomplished anything during. "It's gotten quite tedious. We do the same thing constantly...and for what?! The same thing always happens. Repeatedly" he thought to himself. Then, to make matters worse, a loud voice echoed through the halls. "You stayed here awful late today" the voice practically yelled. Arthur sighed. "Yes I did. But so did yourself!" he shot back. "Chill, Artie! I usually stay behind to talk with everyone else. By the way, I have a question. You don't exactly have a ride home, do you?" Alfred inquired. "Shit!" Arthur hissed in his mind. Why is it that this idiot always sees straight through him?

Alfred gave a sly grin. "Your face says it all. YOU HAVE TO LET THE HERO TAKE YOU HOME NOW!" he chimed. "By the way...get some air freshener or something when you do get back. Your place reeks of tea and burned scones" he added. "Thank you for the offer, but I'd rather keel over and die" Arthur said, his tone of voice flat. Something in the country's face shifted a bit, though. Arthur's words might have attempted to demean Alfred and hurt his feelings, but his face said the complete opposite. "You're coming with me. Whether you like it or not" Alfred replied. "Fine, git! As long as you don't keep going on and on about it. Hurry up!" Arthur snapped.

Once they were in the car, neither one of them said a word. Until Alfred missed the turn, that is. "Hoy. My house is back that way" Arthur shed light on the situation. "I know" the other nation replied with a large smile on his face. Arthur rolled his eyes and propped his head up on his hand. Wherever they were going, there was no convincing Alfred to do anything otherwise.

Twenty minutes later, they pulled into Alfred's driveway. Once the car stopped, Arthur, unaware he had even dozed off, awoke with a start. "ALFRED JONES, YOU KNOW BLOODY WELL YOU CANNOT RUN PEOPLE OVER! DIDN'T I TEACH YOU TO DRIV-" he cut himself off, realizing he was no longer sleeping. The younger nation just giggled and dragged him in against his will.

"So…why'd you bring me here?" Arthur questioned. "Wanted to spend some time with you" Alfred quietly replied. Either way, it was audible to the Brit. Alfred could visibly see his body tense up. "Alright then" Arthur finally responded with a sigh. He grabbed a pillow. For some reason, everything about Alfred's house smelled so…good. It, very surprisingly, didn't have the odor of hamburger grease as expected. "Has he been waiting to have me over here?" he thought to himself before visiting the depths of slumber once again. Alfred would let him sleep for a bit. He looked like he needed it.

"Hey. Wake up" Alfred sternly stated. "Hell…drifted off again, didn't I?" Arthur asked. "Yes you did, old-timer" Alfred shot back. "I'm not that old!" Arthur protested. "That's not the point. We need to talk" Alfred began, eyes piercing and cold. "Stop pretending you don't want to discuss things, either. I heard you talking to the bartender while you were drunk a couple weeks ago. You weren't going to say any of it straight to my face though, were you? Figures. You don't have the stomach" he said in response to the other man's confused expression. "I have no clue as to what you are talking about!" Arthur retorted, throwing the pillow that was in his possession and missing. It cut the radio on and a commercial started playing. "Quit it, Arthur. Now you're the one being childish" Alfred sharply said with those ice cold eyes. The commercial ended. "So now. Tell me what it is."

'My Immortal' started playing. "Erh…i-it's just that we have not really s-seen much of each other lately…" Arthur half-heartedly said. He knew the other country wouldn't believe that lie, and he didn't. "Fine. You want the real reason?! You're all big and great now, but do you ever remember to thank the person who raised you? Just remember back on how things were. You are not the only one in this world. Who taught you all you know? Who listened when nobody else would? Who lulled you to sleep when you'd always fear the Crooked Man would get you? Hah…sleep. That bit of sleep there is the most I have had in weeks" he quietly spoke out.

_'Cause your presence still lingers here, and it won't leave me alone._

"I do not know how much you even concern yourself with it anymore, but I still envision the horrors of that war every single night. I lost everything. Who cares about losing tea or land, even power…I lost you, Alfred. The only person I could say anything to. The person I wanted to show the world. Your voice then was so sweet. It tore me up to hear how much venom that very voice could carry…" Arthur trailed off.

_Your face – it haunts my once pleasant dreams. Your voice – it chased away all the sanity in me._

"ENOUGH" Alfred shouted at him. "I am sick of you constantly going on and on about that stupid war! I hate hearing you talk about it because all you do is complain and it gives you such a self-centered and narrow-minded view of things! Think about all the power you had, Arthur. I think the person that really had gotten lost was you. I have never said I don't respect you for taking care of me all that time. I do think it's about time you stop dwelling on the past. This isn't at all what I expected to happen when I left. I expected it to make you see you were corrupted and make you stronger through making yourself fix those problems. I didn't expect you to just crumble into nothingness and become a sorry mess who does nothing but dwell on the past. What happened to _Great_ Britain, Arthur? Tell me" Alfred lectured, waiting the other country for a response.

The response he got was Arthur slamming the door shut and walking off into the rain alone. "You idiot…" he thought to himself "I was only Great Britain when you were by my side rather than against me. I cannot be Great Britain again when all of my greatest moments were with you"

"Artie! Arrr-tie! God dammit, Arthur, it's fucking cold out here. I am getting tired of your shit. COME BACK HERE AND GET INSIDE THE HOUSE RIGHT NOW!" Alfred roamed the street, shouting at the top of his lungs. Arthur felt bad knowing he was searching for him, but there was just no way he could face that git now. "Listen here! You'd better not make me use 'the name'. AND YEAH, I SAID IT. NOT AFRAID TO USE IT!" more shouting came from just down the lane. He hid farther in the alley he was currently standing in. First he heard a huff. Next a sigh. "Alright. You leave me no choooice! Come back, please…Engwand. Ennn-gwand!" and then that. "D-d-dammit!" Arthur thought, teeth chattering. How dare he play dirty like that. "He knows I am a sucker for the cute way he always used to say my country name" he cursed his unfortunate luck. He inched his slender figure out of the alley and the American immediately noticed. "Dude. Not cool. Get in. You're gonna get hypothermia or some shit" Alfred nagged. He did so and said nothing.

They sat in pure silence for most of that night. Arthur sat on the couch waiting for Alfred to say something more while Alfred was just wanting Arthur to tell him why he is so stuck on the past. It was, as anticipated, Alfred who spoke first.

"You know…running will not help. It is not like you at all to run as soon as the going gets tough. I will try not to be impatient about this, but I want reasons. Arthur, I promise I will not hurt you that badly ever again. What happened between us all those years ago was bound to. It just needed to be pointed out that I am one person and you are a different person. We will disagree like any two people do at some point in time, but that does not mean we won't get along in the end. You are still the person I hold dearest, and don't you ever forget that" Alfred said in a barely audible whisper. Those words were all it took for his walls to immediately come crashing down. "I…I…I knew all along how different we are. Feared something like that would happen the day I took you in" he mumbled, trying to hold back tears. "Why did you raise me knowing good and well that would happen?" Alfred tilted his head to the side and asked. "I couldn't just leave you there. You were an adorable little bugger. But more importantly, I did it in hopes that a conversation such as this one would happen one day" he responded.

"Arthur…" Alfred breathed. "Y-you know why I tried to take over the world, right?" he choked out the question while burying his head into Alfred's shoulder and grabbing his shirt. The other male nodded. "It was going to be ours…it really was…" he said through sobs. "Shhh…it's okay, Artie. The world isn't made to be owned. It is made so we can all live together like we are" Alfred whispered in his ear to comfort him. Arthur nodded. They both had a new perspective on the war after that day.


End file.
